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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22914787">Yes I'm Wearing Your Shirt: You've Been Mostly Dead</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurntKloverfield/pseuds/BurntKloverfield'>BurntKloverfield</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ben Solo Lives, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Ben Solo was just mostly dead, Ben Solo was just recuperating in the Force, Ben Solos good boy boyfriend sweater, Depressed Rey, F/M, Fix-It, Force Bond (Star Wars), Post TROS, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Redeemed Ben Solo, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, TROS Fix IT, boyfriend sweater</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:55:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,045</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22914787</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurntKloverfield/pseuds/BurntKloverfield</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben Solo was only mostly dead, and over the past several months since Exegol, his life Force has been recuperating in the Force. Rey is where we last saw her on Tatooine, working through her grief.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>137</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>BurntKloverfield's Reylo Ficlets, I Fixed It: a collection of TROS fix it fics</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Yes I'm Wearing Your Shirt: You've Been Mostly Dead</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>"But don't you have like a half dozen WIPS you're working on?"<br/>"Yes I do, random citizen."<br/>"Why are you writing this?"<br/>"I'm running with the creativity I've got. I'm working on everything else, but this came and so I wrote it out."</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div>
  <p>The nights on Tatooine were cold. Rey knew they would be. A desert is a desert, no matter what planet it was.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>She looked away from the sunset to go back down into the Lars' homestead. As she had cleaned up the home, she had learned that the last people who had lived here were the Lars, a couple named Owen and Beru and their nephew Luke Skywalker.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Luke's room was still a child's room with handmade model ships strewn about and podracing posters on the walls. She couldn't imagine Luke so young, but the remnants reminded how young she had felt when she had left Jakku. She tried to stay away from his room. She had cleaned it up, set things in their proper places, collected what tools he had, but it stayed closed and put away. She lived her days out throughout the rest of the moisture farm.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>She retrieved Ben's shirt from her things in the main bedroom and pulled the collar up over her mouth and nose so that she could breathe in the now familiar and comforting smell. It was Ben's, wholly Ben's, the last and perhaps the only thing she had of him.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>That's why she had gone to Tatooine. Surely there must be something of him here, or something of his family, something of his heritage. She knew little else of where he came from. She detested the First Order, and she would not approach the ships that held the reminder of him as Kylo Ren. She had searched the Millennium Falcon for anything that could have been his, but the only things that remained were the dice that were properly his father's. Leia had had nothing of Ben's. She had grown up on Alderaan which had been destroyed before Ben was born, so there was nothing there that would have carried pieces of Ben's soul with it. She dared not go to the rubble of Luke's training temple, where she knew that anything that had been Ben's would have been destroyed. She couldn't stand the thought of going back to the crumbling shell of the Death Star to go diving into the ocean in search of his lightsaber. It had been Kylo Ren's saber, not Ben's. The only thing that she had of Ben was his shirt.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>She pulled it over her head and snuggled into the comforting texture of the fabric. It was soft fabric, well made and warm, except for the singed hole from their fight. She didn't mind it. She just wanted to focus on the fabric around her.</p>
</div><hr/>
<p></p><div>
  <p>When the air filled his lungs, he hadn't expected to be shivering on the stone floor in the cavern on Exegol. His entire body and soul ached, and goosebumps formed over his arms and torso. He sat up suddenly, taking note that he was wearing his pants and shoes, but he was shirtless and weaponless. The only light came from the stars above. The only sound came from the wind.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>He stood, and relief filled his chest to find that he was whole. He had no scars and no bruises and no broken bones. Whatever had happened while he was unconscious had left him healed of everything.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>He was however totally and utterly alone.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>He tried to feel out through the Force for Rey, and he could feel that she was out there somewhere in the Galaxy, but she was not close by.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>The pressure suddenly fell on him, and their Force Bond clicked into place.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rey filled his vision. She was sitting, on the floor he presumed from the way her legs were curled up to her chest, and she had hidden her face in her knees. Her body was shaking like she was crying.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Rey! Are you alright? Where are you?" he asked, already crossing the short distance to her.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>The moment she looked up and saw that it was actually him, she propelled herself up and threw her arms over his shoulders and started sobbing into his bare chest.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>He held her tight against him, squeezing her close.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I thought you were dead!" she sobbed. "You're alive. You're really alive."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Why would you think I was dead?" he whispered, nuzzling a kiss to her cheek and pressing his forehead against her hair.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"You disappeared!" she whimpered, pressing kisses to his skin and running her hands over him, trying to convince herself that this wasn't a dream. "It's been months!"</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Months?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Since Exegol."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I disappeared?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I couldn't reach you through the Force. I was so alone!"</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Are you alright? Are you safe?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>She nodded. "You're alive. I'm so much better. And you? Where are you?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Exegol? Right where we were."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I'll come to you, as soon as I can," Rey insisted, propelling herself back into the room to collect her things. "It will take some time. I'm on Tatooine."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"What the kriff are you doing on Tatooine?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Mourning your death, you moon jockey!" she laughed, though her cheeks were covered with tears. She lifted the hem of the shirt up so that she could clip her saber to her belt.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Are you wearing my shirt?" he asked.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Tears flooded her face again, and she threw herself at him, capturing his mouth with her own. She nodded, though she continued the kiss.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"It looks good on you," he whispered when she finally moved for air. "But I don't have my shirt."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rey teared up, yet again, and she stripped the shirt from her and threw it over his head. "Don't you dare go disappearing again. I want that back."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Only when you're back in my arms. Is my tie still here? I can meet you halfway."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rey nodded, feeling her jaw tremble. "I could hardly look at it when I left."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>He smiled at her as he adjusted the shirt over his torso. His eyes softened. "It smells like you."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>She threw her arms back around him again. "I kept it because it smelled like you."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"The moment the bond dissolves, I'm flying straight to you. Midway should be near Takodana."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Perfect."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Did you take both sabers?"</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"I buried them."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"You buried them."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Rey nodded. "Here on the Lars' homestead."</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>Ben stared at her.</p>
</div><div>
  <p> </p>
</div><div>
  <p>"Let the past die," she echoed. "Meet you on Takodana."</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Looking for more? Check out my <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurntKloverfield/profile">profile</a> or my <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/collections/ReyloFiclets">Reylo Ficlets.</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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